Things to do in Dublin this weekend (May 16-18)
From outdoor screenings to alternative comedy nights, there is plenty happening in Dublin this weekend.
Open Air Film Screening
When: Friday, 16 May
Where: Meeting House Square, Temple Bar
How much: Free
As part of Bike Week 2025, Dublin City Council's Cycling, Walking Officer, and the Office of the Night-Time Economy are bringing a special outdoor screening of the heart-warming documentary, The Song Cycle, to Meeting House Square, Temple Bar.
The free evening kicks off with a Musical Bike Bop led by the Critical Mass / IBIKEBop crew, followed by a panel discussion featuring thought leaders and advocates for active travel and community-based urban living. All welcome.
Irish Popup Collective
When: Sunday, 18 May, 10am - 6pm
Where: Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire
How much: Free entry
Organisers Kate Fine and Debbie Millington have curated a superb shopping experience showcasing products from the best entrepreneurs, local makers and creatives all under one roof. There will be colourful jewellery (A Little Idea, Don't Kill My Vibe, Capulet & Montague, Sandia), summer style (FAO Millinery, Moon & Mellow, Kate's Sample Sale, handcrafted homewares (ED P Creative, Sinéad O'Moore Ceramics, Little Fort Ceramics), and sustainable skincare (Bean Around, Nunaia, Anam Cosmetics and Hair Organic). For full details, follow @irishpopupcollective.
When: Saturday, 17 May, 8:30pm - 11pm
Where: The Pearse Centre
How much: €11.70
Cork's hit alternative comedy show is returning to Dublin following its sold-out debut. Host Mark Moloney will provide a night of oddball humour featuring the incredible Shane Clifford, clowning duo Lipstink (Maria Cunningham and Saorla Rodger), sketch group The Cronie Brothers (Cormac Sinnott, Jack Shortall, and Patrick Conlon), comedian Ross O'Donoghue, and stalwart of Cork comedy Thomas Lawrance. Tickets available on Eventbrite.
Dublin City Food Culture Tour by Bike
Organised as part of Bike Week by Dublin City Council, this delicious tour will start and end at Wolfe Tone Square. Bring your bike or book one with the organisers (you will need to download the free Bleeper app to avail of the free bike), and uncover some of the city's best coffee spots and street food treasures. Book your spot on Eventbrite.
The Quirky Quiz
When: Sunday, 18 May at 7:30pm
Where: The Tap House, Ranelagh
How much: €5 per person (€4 early bird)
A drag hosted night of laugh, trivia, and craic is coming to Ranelagh this Sunday. With unique rounds, games, and prizes, this is sure to be a night to remember. Early Bird tickets are €4 per person or general admission €5 per person. Team size is max six players and everyone must be over 18. Get your tickets on Eventbrite.
WAVES Meditative painting workshop
When: Sunday, 18 May, 3pm - 5pm
Where: The Fumbally Stables, Dublin 8
How much: €22.42
Waves Meditative painting workshop is a self-care experience that will help you slow down and tune in. In this workshop, you will be guided through breathwork techniques that connect with your work. There will be ambient music in the beautiful space, and poetic prompts to assist the workshops' overall experience. All you need is your ticket, as all art materials will be provided.
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
If we want free-flowing hurling we must accept the refereeing that facilitates it
On the raised television gantry at the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night, Alan Connolly leant on the barrier, while on the pitch behind him Cork fans belted out a chorus of 'After All'. When he turned around to take in the scene below, the decibel levels rose. Liam Sheedy, Donal Óg Cusack and Henry Shefflin were all standing beside him. Hurling royalty. But for those draped in red and white below it was clear that Connolly was the star attraction. Such was the level of the noise, Shefflin had to lean over at one stage to repeat his question to the Cork forward. During the entire interview Connolly – still in full gear and boots – carried the chilled-out disposition of a man who had just perched himself at a poolside bar in their flip-flops. There were the usual questions about the game and then host Joanne Cantwell interjected: 'Can I ask, when there was a change in referee – because Thomas Walsh referees a very particular way, and James Owens referees a very different way – what was it like?' READ MORE Connolly smiled apologetically, seemingly recalling the sight of Walsh requiring treatment on the pitch for cramp. 'It was funny, I hope he's all right,' he said before wondering if it had ever happened before where a referee had to leave the field. Informed that it had indeed, he continued: 'It was interesting, they reffed the game the same enough I thought, to be honest. There wasn't too much of a change, I don't know.' Plenty of others seemed to know. A quick scroll through social media on Saturday night would have demonstrated one of the main talking points from a gripping Munster final was the performance of the referee. Walsh was lauded by many for letting the game flow, his approach credited with contributing to the match, but for others the officiating facilitated a level of lawlessness that went too far. It quickly became a Marmite debate. A couple of days on and still many conversations about the game eventually arrive at the referee. Cork's Alan Connolly has his helmet tugged by Limerick's Diarmaid Byrnes. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Strip it all back and it leaves one very straightforward yet complex question about hurling: What game do we actually want? For those of us currently in a space where we spend many Saturday mornings ferrying kids to Go Games, hurling can seem a very different sport at either end of the chain. But children learn the game not only because of their coaches, they also learn from the referees they encounter. The referees at Go Games are predominately teenagers who have been persuaded to take up the whistle. Many of them spend a lot of their time during matches patiently instructing seven- and eight-year-olds on what to do next. They'll give the goalkeeper a second chance at puck-outs, or on spotting repeated fresh air shots the referee might encourage the young player to hit the ball along the ground instead. When it comes to juvenile sport, both the coaches and referees are heroes. But retaining referees is an ongoing problem for the GAA. Earlier this year Dublin GAA arranged a training course to try attract new referees to deal with a 'chronic shortage' of officials. Gaelic football and hurling are different sports but they share a common indistinctness in terms of some playing rules. Hurling, in particular, can exist in different forms depending on whether the referee wants to swallow their whistle or blow it. So, what game do we want? At the start of each half last Saturday, Walsh held the sliotar in his hand while a pair of opposing midfielders locked horns in that perpetual dance of bouncing off each other and snarling like a pair of bucking bulls released from their pen for the first time in months. Limerick's Shane O'Brien celebrates winning a free. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho As their shoulder-fest found its rhythm, the intensity spread across the pitch and several little replica dances sparked off. The roars from the stands increased, the Gaelic Grounds becoming a sporting tinderbox. The atmosphere, electric. In those few seconds at the start of each half, the terms of engagement were being set. If the referee was allowing those battles to fester, the players had a fair idea that a decent level of aggression would go unpunished. And so it played out. There were fouls not blown, flaking ignored, players got away with stuff. Both management teams then surrounded the referee at half-time – presumably to check if perhaps he could arrange it that only their lads would be allowed do the flaking. One of the positive outcomes of the FRC's new rules in football has been a greater level of respect towards match officials. Gaelic football referees at club and county level have seen a significant decrease in verbal abuse. And yet another of the FRC's rules has been to have a one v one throw-in at the start of each half. Instead, you now have two players standing on opposite sidelines and then dashing in when the ball is tossed in the air. For all the progressive FRC changes, the start of Gaelic football matches has lost something. It's lost that edge of physicality and aggression. But perhaps that is the game we are trying to manufacture now in football? Are we saying we don't want those displays of hostility at the outset of matches? Are we saying we want a game where players hand the ball back to their opponent? That, of course, is football's journey of discovery right now. But those are the kind of questions hurling might eventually have to answer too. As a sporting contest, what the Cork and Limerick players served up on Saturday was captivating. It was a game full of endeavour and desire, two tribes going full-blooded to represent their people. You couldn't take your eyes off it. They deserve great credit for producing such entertainment and drama, but at the same time those matches are also almost impossible to referee. If we can at least agree on that, perhaps we're not far away from having the game we want.
Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Irish Times
Timing of Hell for Leather ideal as viewers reminded why Gaelic football is GAA's code with furthest reach
Midway through the first episode of Hell for Leather, RTÉ's elegant five-part series on the history and nature of Gaelic football, we see a clip of a young boy at some kind of GAA family fun day. With his face painted like a lion, he embarks on a hectic solo run. He chips the ball over the head of the first defender and closes his eyes as he catches it on the bounce. Then tries a toe-to-hand that flies up above his head, but he keeps running, improvising as he goes, like jazz. The camera never loses sight of the boy's enraptured face and, in the slow-motion sequence, every movement he makes with the ball is uninhibited. His relationship with the game has yet to be polluted by systems and strategies and all the paraphernalia of risk management that, until recently, threatened to destroy Gaelic football. The clip is underlaid by interview footage from Juliet Murphy, the eight-time All-Ireland winner with Cork . 'With football, the skills are bunúsach ( basic),' she says, 'but they're beautiful in motion.' The opening episode focuses on football's roots. Bundled up with that are childhood memories and first feelings. Brian Fenton, one of the greatest players of the modern era, talks about knocking the pebble dash off the gable end of his family home in Dublin , in the simple act of kicking and catching. But then he talks about grown-up football trespassing on the innocence of that relationship. READ MORE 'Playing the game as a child, this is the game you love and this is all you know,' he said. 'As things got more serious – and at that elite level – you kind of lose sight of that beautiful game you played as a kid. In many ways, some of our best games were when you strip everything back and the team talk is just, 'this is the game you've played all your life. Just go out and play the game you love. Go out and play it as if you're a child again'.' A little later in the piece, Jack McCaffrey, one of Fenton's teammates on the Dublin six-in-a-row team , addressed the same theme. 'A Gaelic football match is 70-plus minutes,' he said. 'For the majority of it, you're just working like a dog. And the fact of the matter is, it's not enjoyable. But getting a ball in my hand, looking up and thinking 'let's go' – that's exciting.' The feeling that McCaffrey describes was captured by the boy with the lion painted on his face. At so many levels of the game, not just at the highest level, Gaelic football had lost contact with that feeling. It had become a fearful game of percentages and safe passing and suppressed imagination. Everybody was indentured to a plan that reduced the possibility of losing. For many teams, winning could only be considered after not losing was mastered. This philosophy had left the game in a bad state. Football is inherently more portable than hurling and more accessible The timing of Hell for Leather couldn't have been more opportune because this has been the most spectacular football season in living memory. The new rules have injected the games with excitement and scoreboard summersaults and an element of end-to-end sparring that had been absent for many years. The game had been kidnapped by coaching actuaries obsessed with the bottom line. To bring football back to life, it needed to be brainwashed. In a staggeringly short space of time, the new rules seem to have accomplished that mission. If this series had been broadcast last summer, the tone of love and celebration that courses through the interviews would have felt utterly at odds with a game trapped in a cycle of self-rebuke and black introspection. The synchronicity of the tone and the timing adds something vital. In Hell for Leather , some of Gaelic football's biggest stars talk about their first sporting love. Photograph: RTÉ The challenge for a series such as Hell for Leather is to explore something we already know and somehow make it feel like a new acquaintance. Gaelic football covers more of Ireland than any mobile phone network. When something is under our noses, how closely do we look? In the first episode, there is a terrific piece about the islands tournament that is played off in a blitz every summer. It comes and goes without any notice beyond the players and supporters who animate it. Just like with any sport, Gaelic football connects with people and communities in a million micro ways, but because football exists wherever Irish people are found, it bends to each habitat. Football is inherently more portable than hurling and more accessible. Hell for Leather is conscious of an audience that might only watch a handful of big games on telly every summer, but the passages about the origins of the game will be fascinating even to fanatics. The game had ancestors in rural Ireland, but no codified rules. One of the GAA's first big jobs was to make them up. 'As for the tackle,' says the historian Mark Duncan, 'you couldn't headbutt.' It seemed like no other holds were barred. The first match under the GAA's rules was played in Kilkenny and ended scoreless. Don't forget that Kilkenny won two Leinster football titles in the first 25 years of the GAA and contested four other Leinster finals. They don't talk about it much. [ Dean Rock: Armagh are now in an unbelievable position Opens in new window ] Hell for Leather is made by Crossing The Line, the same production house that delivered The Game, the acclaimed series on hurling. In every sense, it has the same texture: it is glossy and cinematic and earthy and soulful. In an exhaustive trawl, more than 80 interviews were conducted over five years. The filmmaker, Gerry Nelson, spent up to three hours with many of the subjects, and you can tell from the short, sharp snippets that appear on screen that Nelson kept digging beyond surface thoughts. 'When you think about football, life comes with it,' says Shane Walsh, the Galway footballer. Had he ever said that out loud before? This is an important portrait of a precious strand of Irish life. Just when football discovered the joy in life again. Hell for Leather, RTÉ One, Monday, 9.35pm
Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Irish Times
Laura O'Mahoney: ‘I once paid €70 for a massive quiche as I was too embarrassed to say I only wanted a slice'
Comedian and director Laura O'Mahony directs Footnote, at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, on June 14th, 16th and 17th as part of Cork Midsummer Festival. Are you a saver or a spender? I am a spender. A wild spender. I don't necessarily spend on myself, but I do spend on my children. In fact, I recently queued outside a Brown Thomas store to purchase a shamrock Jellycat for my kids. Did they need it? No, but it did fill them with joy, and I am into joy. What was the first job you received money for, and how much were you paid? Working in a bookshop in Cork . I think I got paid quite well but I was emergency taxed , and I remembered being scandalised because it felt like my money had simply disappeared. Do you shop around for better value? I don't. I know I should, but I'm not that type of person. I am a fan of immediacy and getting things solved quickly, so shopping around feels like a major hassle. It makes no sense, I know, but at nearly 40 years of age I understand the way my mind works. READ MORE What has been your most extravagant purchase, and how much did it cost? I bought an absolutely beautiful bike for my birthday. I think it was €700. It has a stunning basket at the front. I had images of myself popping into town to buy bread for my basket, but sadly this dream is yet to be realised, and my cycling leaves a lot to be desired. What purchase have you made that you consider the best value for money? We bought a rice cooker recently and, quite honestly, it's a game changer. We now have rice coming out of our ears morning, noon and night. With three hungry mouths to feed, it's a lifesaver and a timesaver. Is there anything you regret spending money on? I don't really ever regret anything. I mean, I have a leaky Stanley cup that I absolutely did not need, but it did bring me joy, and it at least attempted to keep me hydrated for a small while. Do you haggle over prices? I don't have the guts to do that. I get all flustered, so I am such an easy target. I would nearly pay too much not to be mortified. I once paid €70 for a massive quiche because I was too embarrassed to say I just wanted one slice. We were eating quiche for weeks. Do you invest in shares and/or cryptocurrency? I don't, mainly due to lack of knowledge and a bit of trepidation. It's not really my area of expertise, and I suppose I have heard horror stories about things going wrong. Ultimately, I like to know what my money is up to at all times. Do you have a retirement or pension plan? No. As a theatre director and comedian, it is hard to ever see myself retiring. Plans such as these are, of course, something I need to resolve and seek advice on but I'm not brilliant at taking advice even when it's for my own good. What was the last thing you bought and was it good value for money? I bought a holiday to London for my family for my 40th birthday and it was great value. We are staying in a lovely apartment close to everything. Those kinds of memories are priceless. Have you ever successfully saved up for a relatively big purchase? I saved up for our wedding. Aside from our house, it was probably the biggest purchase but there was real pleasure in saving for something so beautiful. Have you ever lost money? I haven't, but my son lost €20 in a toy shop the other day. His little heart was so sad. I should have used it as a learning experience about the importance of money but, instead, I pretended I found it. The world will teach him the tough lessons; I am a soft touch, and I don't feel the need to yet. Are you a gambler and, if so, have you ever had a big win? I am not a gambler. I will take risks in life but not with money. I threw a fiver on Sweden to win the Eurovision this year, and look where that got me. What is your best habit when it comes to money? And your worst? My best habit is not overspending on myself. My worst habit is wildly overspending on everyone else and forgetting that saving is a very important life skill. How much money do you have on you now? I could probably scrape together about a tenner for you from coins at the end of my bag. In conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea
